Soooo, I have tried to avoid bitching too much about WordPress, as imperfect as it is. Not to mention that I don’t hate the block editor (heresy!), though of course I have empathyfor anyone experiencing difficulties getting their writing to publish. The thing is, blogging is my favorite form of social media by far, and I’m super grateful it’s surviving when almost everyone else just twitters and faceplops. I blame a short attention span… I remember when some of my writer friends kept interesting blogs, but now they just quote boring political crap on FB, or repost dumb memes. I guess it’s easier. 🙄
H O W E V E R!
I had the damndest time getting my last post to publish properly. And this has nothing to do with the cursed BE because I was using the app in classic mode. Ooh, maybe they’re screwing with the CE to get us to switch over entirely (I use the BE on my laptop). I had to keep fixing it and republishing it to get all the links to “take.” They would disappear in the process and I’d view the post only to find them poofed. So maddening!
I understand that the outcome of writing to WP for help is zippo, nada, crickets. So why bother? Instead I’m venting here, especially because this wasn’t a one-off. I’ve had to repost other pieces of writing due to formatting glitches. Sometimes my video links don’t show up with previews, and it looks stupid when the html link sits there alone instead of a nice music image. Btw, I’m in the process of labeling all my saved images, since the WP search function is crap. Not talking about their library, but trying to find something I’ve used before and saved in mine. Yes, that’s a differentissue, but why not throw everything into the Big Casserole of Doom?
Fandango’s Dog Days prompt today asks us to thank our followers/readers, so here ya go! Thanks! I really appreciate all y’all and, as I said yesterday, interaction is my main motivation for blogging, so keep it coming.
On another note, I have been reading more and more that bloggers are very upset with the changes in WordPress. While the block editor doesn’t bug me, I do feel your pain. Why change things that are working? Why make the process inconvenient for peeps? It just doesn’t make sense. Focusing only on business bloggers is going to backfire on WP, imo. There are still a lot of hobbyists and some of us pay. The ones who don’t still provide a platform for advertisers, who pay. This forced annoyance is pretty misguided imo. 🙁
Blogger dot com still exists however. Some of my friends never liked WP and are still there. I have a blogger blog still up that I haven’t been using (deleted the old content) and would have no problem cycling back to. The navigation is pretty simple and a blog is easy to set up… all you need is a google account.
The one thing I’m unsure about is if they have a feed similar to WP. I would think one should exist somewhere. If not, we can use blogrolls or a separate feed reader, such as Feedspot. It’s all good. 🙂
Let me know your thoughts on continuing this thing we do! 😻
I meant to do the Dog Days’ prompt last night before bed, but I began a puzzle, got sleepy, and conked out. To punish me for this neglect, my guilty conscience kept waking me, and Monday morning said hello with a migraine. (Yay for meds! Feeling better already.) Generally, however, I make my blog a priority; for example, I have my Thursday Inspirations scheduled out through the end of September. They aren’t topical, so that’s fine. My Monday Peeves could theoretically be scheduled too, but I kinda like to wait until I’m genuinely annoyed with something on the spot, which is never a problem. If I go a week without getting annoyed, my blog fans will be the first to know!
Speaking of blog things, you’ll be happy to know that I am approaching the big 2K of real followers. What do I mean by that? I mean that instead of “cheating” and including Facebook and Twitter “friends” as followers by connecting my blog to those platforms, I disconnected and am counting only those who actually have clicked on follow. Truth is, I don’t mind the lower number because it more accurately reflects how my blog is doing. Obviously, not all 1900+ followers are reading my posts, but that’s okay. They’ve clicked follow, which is what counts.
Honestly, I feel like a fish out of water on FB and Twitter now. People are so niched up, with many focusing only on one topic (usually politics, but not always), and they get lots of friends/followers because their fellow focusers see them as a serious poster. I’m not serious. On FB, I’ll post whatever silly thing crosses my mind, but since my return I don’t post much, compared to my prior account. It’s just not that appealing any longer, though I’m glad to have reconnected with peeps and try to comment here and there without getting into fights. On Twitter, I usually tweet poetry, but I also retweet politics, cat stuff, otters, nom food pics, jokes, whatever. The Serious Poets are not interested in following me. Oh well.
But blogging isn’t like that. The peeps I follow in general post on a variety of topics, and this pleases me. I enjoy knowing that when I go to Fandango’s pad, I might see politics (well, duh) or some cool piece of flash fiction. He also hosts prompts, as do many of us. When I visit Di or Li or Sadje, I might get to read a poem or an essay or flash fiction. There are also a bunch of posters with neato info about music (Jim, John, et al). Of course Rory takes the cake with posts on everything imaginable. This all makes my newsfeed more fun for me. I guess blogging is now considered the fringe of social media. It’s like telling people you still burn CDs for your car. How uh quaint.
I checked some of your blogs tonight and realized I’ve missed many posts the last few days. Sorry about that. I’ve been busy welcoming my beautifulnew grandson to the world.
What is the value of running writing prompts to your writing in general, and your blog in particular?
I host two prompts: the Monday Peeve and Thursday Inspiration. These prompts don’t do anything to help my writing ~ I continue them because they are fun! 🤩
The Monday Peeve is a feature that people enjoyed on one of my older blogs (gone now), and I decided to try it here. I’m really pleased with all the comments it inspires, plus the several regular participants who peeve on their own blogs. I think it’s my most interactive post, and I like that a lot.
Thursday Inspiration is the opposite really: I don’t get much interaction in comments, though usually it generates a bunch of likes. Some regulars post their take on the theme, and I look forward to reading those. But my main goal of hosting this prompt is pure selfish enjoyment. When I’m working on my Happy Color pictures, thinking of a theme song adds another layer of pleasure to my relaxation. 😍
What I don’t care about are blog traffic stats. Many prompt hosts appear to be motivated by them, but they mean nothing to me since my blog isn’t monetized and I’m too lazy to market my books… the idea being that increased traffic would result in book sales, pffft. I just checked my sales and they are completely flatlined. But I must have sold one a few months ago, since I was notified today about a minuscule payment.
So I haven’t been around blogtown much today. That’s because I’m obsessed with a new task. No, it’s not real work or anything like that. I got the bright idea from another blog to delete all my “unattached” images that were taking up space in the media folder. I love love love deleting things, and this has bugged me for a long time. Yay! Found the place, selected unattached, and POOF all gone.
Well, guess what? Right. It deleted some attached images too. Obviously, I have to go back TEN FREAKING YEARS and fix every post. I mean, what else can I do? There are a ton of issues associated with this fixing…
Going back to the beginning and chronologically returning to the present is not easy. After a while, WordPress figures eh enough time spent in the past… I’ll just refresh now and pop her up to today. This puts me in such a rage I can’t even. I’ve also tried starting from today and going back, but the same thing happens. Pop!
When I began this blog, I had like 10 followers and I didn’t care at all about an audience. I wrote for myself, quoting poets, jabbering about books, and sticking up pics for Wordless Wednesday. Many posts had no images, which now I see makes them BORING. So, since I’m doing the thing, I’m putting images on all my posts.
I see we can’t have an actual outline here (2A, 2B, etc. ~ OF COURSE NOT!). Okay, so I don’t have the correct pics for my early posts and I’m not gonna spend even more ridiculous time googling them. I am just using what I have in my media library to get close enough. I’ve had to delete some Wordless Wednesdays completely because they are actually wordless and I don’t know what the hell was there (some still have pics and are fine ~ it’s random).
An issue that arises is… can I use an image I added to my library in 2018 for a 2012 post? What if it didn’t exist then? I’ve decided I don’t care. Well, I do, but eff it. POSTS NEED IMAGES!
I was worried about not doing “alt text” for these new additions, but I didn’t do that back then for any images. Consistency is important, so I’m leaving the alt text off the images (along with the copyright notice at the end of posts like I have now). Plus, I don’t always do it for current posts, especially for the Happy Color pics.
Here’s something completely maddening: searches rarely work in the media library. Go on, try it. You’ll get random stuff that isn’t what you want. Like say I want some sort of boat-in-water picture. I’ll search for boat, ship, water, waves, ocean, etc. But generally the pic I want THAT EXISTS IN THE FOLDER will not come up. Then I have to scroll through hundreds of photos to find it. I pretty much know what’s there and want to avoid grabbing new images because I have so many already.
Another issue is videos. I noticed that some were greyed out because I guess they weren’t permitted (I often use fun ones rather than the official ones). Naturally, I can’t leave them like that, but I’m NOT NOT NOT spending time YouTubing new ones. What to do? I delete the bad video and put a note saying so.
I’m not fixing my “poast” and other silly spellings to conform to how I write now, nor am I taking out the massive amount of cursing. That’s what I wrote, so it all stays. I am trying not to read the posts closely or else I’ll want to delete them all. I have a lot of gaps anyway because until the last few years, I only blogged once in a while, maybe twice a week or so. Oh, and I kept deleting my complaints about dating and such every time I went back on a dating site. Gah.
The whole thing is a gigantic pain in the butt, but I’ll feel good once it’s done. I should have been cleaning up older posts all along, so it wouldn’t be such a monumental task all at once.
Nice that the block editor keeps the alt text of previous images unlike the classic editor. I’m always forgetting to add it and Ashley says we should. If we copypasta an entire post, of course, the alt text is kept, but (1) I haven’t found the copy button yet on Blocky, and (2) sometimes that’s annoying anyway because you have to delete so much. Ideally, my saved pieces will have All The Things.
This is my first post today (Friday, June 5)… though I realize for some of you it’s already Saturday and you’re onto the Stream of Con thingie. I’ll do that next if I don’t collapse here at the table as I do sometimes. Fan. Fan fan fan. Lots of ways to go there. Again, I failed to do the flashback… maybe that won’t be a regular feechur here any longer, idk. I’m pretty bored with it, plus I like to write new things. I did do a brief search yesterday, but only one year came up and I didn’t like anything. Remember that, even though this blog is a decade old, there were times I didn’t post much and other times I went through and hosed vast amounts of jabber off the sidewalk. That was because (1) I like getting rid of old, negative vibes, and (2) I kept restarting the dating stupidity and thought men might go back and read it and get the (correct) idea that I’m a big crab. I should have been searching for a lobster, or someone relatively crunchy.
I’ve been posting more from my laptop instead of my phone. That’s because my hand hurts. Idk if it’s arthritis or what. It seems like it probably is. In any case, normal typing on a keyboard is much more comfortable for my hand than poking at the phone buttons. That’s why, if anyone wondered, I’ve been using fewer emoticons… sometimes I save a post and then open it on my phone and “decorate” it before publishing, but not always. I told my doctor about my hand on our tele-visit and asked if it was okay to use ICYHOT. He said sure but it didn’t do anything except excite my nerves to distract me from the pain for a bit. Ever since then, the ICYHOT has lost its appeal, lol. Which is great because I have a multipack of the stuff from Amazon that I ordered to get a great bargain. [insert eyeroll]
I had trouble sleeping this week. All the chaos in the streets/media just got to me (again). Worry for myself, my work, my family, their work, health, safety, finances, all of it, circles and ripples and spirals of worry. I haven’t been able to fall asleep for real until way after midnight (sometimes I have a crash nap for a few minutes here & there)… sometimes not until 2AM. And I don’t sleep that much later to make up for it… I am usually awake by 6:30 at the latest, though I will try to doze off and on for another hour, if I can. I get up tired, which I hate, and muddle through the day, sometimes finding energy in the afternoon, depending on the day. It’s just an exhausting cycle. I’m hoping to get it under control this weekend with some good self-care.
Needless to say, I’ve had to focus what little mental sharpness I’ve had on work and there was nothing left for my writing projects. That’s just how it is and I refuse to beat myself up over it. I didn’t go outside and exercise, even though things are opening up, because of the protests and random weird stuff going on. I absolutely do not want to get involved in anything. That’s just how I am, and if anyone has a problem with it, please go rant on your own blog about the joys of activism. I’m in chronic pain and can’t fix the world, sorry. Marching/yelling/being in a glob of people would certainly give me migraines and back pain for days. I was glad to see that the protests in Orange County, California stayed peaceful and purposeful however. That didn’t interest the major news media, since they only want to show violence to get more shares and clicks.
Facebook is a drag. I was happy to return during the pandemic to reconnect with peeps… it was wonderful to be so warmly welcomed back. I totally dug that. It was easy enough to steer clear of most of the ranting politics and instead chat with peeps about their pets and recipes and what-all, but then along came this latest round of screaming. Peeps are diligently reposting links and memes and lecturing everyone else on the exact way to say things and do things and yada yada boo. I do feel proud that I received a “bless your heart” from a Texas conservative. I must be doing something right, eh? Mostly though I tiptoe around now because I don’t need someone to messily explode at me for not wording my feels in the prescribed manner. I hesitate to post anything myself in fear of starting a massive war of words in my comments, since I have friends from all over the political spectrum. Meh.
Twitter is nuts. I keep losing followers, though I don’t say a damn thing. How could I offend anyone? Maybe they die, idk. Yesterday I complained about my sinking stats and a few returned. Who even knows what is up with that place. I shouldn’t care about the numbers, and I wouldn’t except they’re right on the splash page of your profile. At least here on WP, I have to click somewhere to look at my pathetic stats. Yes, I know they are bad because I did look. Pffft. Don’t care. WHY don’t I care about my WP stats, when I’m writing here, but I care about my number of Twitter followers, when I barely tweet? There is a mystery…
Okay, this is long. I should go make some tea and write the fan thing now.
Yep, it’s Friday. And yep I did a search for May 29th posts last night, but nothing grabbed me. I had a One-Line Wednesday that came up about migraine tigers (triggers), but if I’m going to post about head pain, I’d prefer to ramble on about it anew. Oh! Did I tell you… I’m sloooowly going off one of my meds? Yep, my doc and I discussed it in a virtual visit last week and I’ve now cut Topamax 25% and am okay so far. It’s a good time to try this when I don’t have so much going on and can lie down if I need to. The drug was a lifesaver at a time when I was super-stressed, but things are pretty chill now and I don’t like all the side effects, especially feeling so blah. I can always go back on if my migraines get too horrible to bear, but my hope is that I can cope without it and I’ll have more energy again and can start to exercise more (i.e., at all). The goal is to be completely done by June 30. Since my head gets really bad toward the end of August through September, whatever I do, this will be a good way to make sure I don’t confuse that inevitable badness with going off the drug. I’m determined to be optimistic even though I did this a couple years ago and it was a big fail. I had more stressors then though.
Not that things aren’t stressful in the world now. Right? I mean gah! But I feel lucky that I’m able to stay pretty isolated from it all and I’m also the kind of person who doesn’t mind being isolated. My personal life (knock wood) is calm, even while the world is falling apart. I’m sorry world, but there isn’t much I can do about the things out there except try not to make them worse. Perhaps staying in here, as I do, helps a little. At least I’m not using much gas anyway. But things are “opening up” again, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me as the virus numbers are climbing, but what do I know, eh? Maybe they felt more and more people were going to take to the streets in protest so they’d better let them start going to the Cheesecake Factory (just an example ~ I don’t actually know if the Cheesecake Factory is open). Nothing is perfect. Personally, I am not going to sit in a restaurant, or anywhere else, among a giant glob of people, anytime soon. I just don’t see why I should take that risk. I’m fine at home by myself, going out to get groceries once a week, and stopping at my office (alone) to pick up the mail and water the plants. I understand that some people are going out of their minds without actual physical companionship, but I’m not one of them. The only thing I truly miss is not being able to see my family and the routine of going to the office 9-5 daily. I’m one of those weirdos who likes doing that. There are very few of us apparently… most people prefer blobbing around the house in sweatpants. Bleh.
I don’t really have interesting thoughts about current events. My view is likely the typical “liberal” one on most things, except I don’t allow disgust for a leader to create my reaction to every issue. One thing I differ on from many is my view about social media. I’ve already mentioned my unpopular idea that I do think there is something wrong with the idea of providing a platform for people to be utterly horrible to each other, even to the point of ganging up on someone and driving them to suicide, in order to make money from ads, and then shrugging off all responsibility for it. I’ve said that one possible solution is to disallow anonymity. One account, one person, and it trails you forever like a fingerprint. Well, no one likes that because it’s as scary as a microchip in a vaccine. What about forcing the companies to enforce their own TOS and not selectively as they do but consistently and fairly? Maybe they’d make less money, boo hoo. I don’t think children should be on social media at all. It’s bad. But if “everyone else is” and that’s how teachers are giving out lesson plans, well, whaddayagonnado?
One thing I really dislike about this new block editor is that I don’t see my word count as I type. Where is it? Last time I copypasta’d my writing into a Word document to obtain it, but that’s just dumb. There should be a word counter somewhere! It’s probably here in some menu that makes no sense off to the side and I’m just not finding it. I know, what a weird thing to get annoyed about, but hey that’s me! Weird things annoy me. I need to know my word count, grrrr. Otherwise, there’s literally nothing wrong with typing in blocks and I don’t know what people are so fussed about unless you have some huge complicated page with moving parts you need to paste in. I’m just straight up typing and it’s fine. I don’t know if I can add my photo here (but that was the case with the old editor as well) ~ if I can’t, I’ll save the post and add the photo from the app. (Added the photo!)
Today I need a stamp. Why can’t we pay the water bill online? I don’t think that’s enough for a whole Monday Peeve, so I’ll just leave it right here. Maybe something will annoy me when I walk over to the Post Office and it can be my Monday Peeve, but it’s just a stamp. What could go wrong?
I FOUND THE WORD COUNTER! It’s the little “i”. Why wouldn’t you know that? Who wouldn’t think to click the little “i”…
Changing things up by choosing the challenging block editor to format this post. Will it check out okay or turn into a chaotic disaster? We shall see! I’m a bit scared in starting this new chapter of bloggery, but sometimes you can’t be a chicken and you have to simply charge ahead and cross that channel. Choices make our characters, right? I don’t want to be chained to the classic editor if this one is better and all it takes is a simple leap of faith (off my lazy chair) to learn a few new tricks to get the hang of it. Cheers!
The lovely Sadje tagged me for some Q’s. Thanks for the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite subjects! 🤣
What is your favorite time of the day?
Lately I’ve become an afternoon person. I don’t mean since The Thing, but gradually over the last decade or so. I used to love mornings, but I’m pretty achy when I first wake up now and it takes me a while to feel okay and be productive.
How strict are you with yourself, regarding health?
I’m good about not overeating, but I’m terrible at exercising. I’m good about eating veggies and not subsisting on Snickers bars like I used to, and I rarely touch alcohol.
Do you follow back a blogger who follows your blog?
Mostly not, unless they comment and their blog interests me. If they simply follow and like posts, I may not even notice them.
How do you deal with criticism in real life?
Depends who it’s from. If it’s from someone who is signing my paycheck or someone I gave birth to, I’ll take it seriously. Anyone else, probably not so much. This is different from writing critique when I’ve requested it, of course. 🙂
How do you deal with criticism in the blogging world?
Usually they get thrown in the trash. I am not obligated to provide a forum for jerks and meanies. They can post their crap on their own blogs. Way back in the day, I thought I should allow all comments to pass through, but why? This is my space. Anyone can get their own.
Any ideas about how we can turn the current situation to our advantage?
Yes. The auto insurance companies have reported a decline in claims during the past couple months since people have been staying home. This is obvious, right? Fewer miles driven = fewer accidents = fewer injuries and deaths. But really think about that every time you get in a car. It’s one of the most dangerous things we do. 😬
Are you a dessert person?
I used to be. I used to crave sweets and make a dessert my whole meal. I’m sure I still would if it was available. But I seem to have lost the intense cravings I once had, and I’m much more satisfied with healthy choices. 🥑
What colors do you like to wear?
I like a bunch of neutrals in browns, black, beige, white, etc. and then one thing in a bright color like pink or turquoise. Or on the weekend I might put the brighter colors together if I’m feeling whimsical.
What color decor you like around you, in your home?
Browns and animal print things. 🐯
What is your favorite place to write from?
Probably my kitchen table on my iPhone.
Do you like getting Blogging awards?
Sure! It’s nice when someone thinks of me. I hope people don’t mind if I only answer the questions though and don’t tag anyone.
